Italian Wars - Rethinking and Rebasing

I'm kind of a megalomaniac and this led me to overthink another project. We learn from our mistakes right?

So using 28mm figures my previous ideas about basing and collecting Italian Wars period figures just did not work. The units were too large and unfeasible on the tabletop. This then led me to stall and not get done with anything. I even considered switching to 6mm Baccus figures entirely and abandoning the project, because I just could not progress any further.

Then one evening it struck me that I overdid it again, and I should limit my goals and build my armies slowly, so they are playable at an earlier stage.

So I started rebasing my current figure collection for The Pikeman's Lament or other large scale skirmishes in mind, with six foot or three horse on a 75x50mm base and command as I see fit. 

First I thought about four foot or two horse on a 50x50mm base, but then I could not get six figure foot units, which are part of the PL rules.

Of course I can later expand this, especially the pike blocks, to include more than two bases or 12 pikes in total.

With that I ordered two boxes of Perry Mercenaries, to be used as Swiss pike and French/Italian shot for the same conflict. This would give me a playable force in the foreseeable future. 

The Perry figs may be a bit outdated for the later part of the wars but I'll just overlook that. I've got some Warlord heads and bits to update them a bit, also I can sculpt slashed sleeves with green stuff.

Of course it would have been better to buy some Cossack infantry and finish my - about seventy percent done - Deluge project starting armies, but sometimes you just act on a whim.

Plus I got about twice as many figures for lesser money.

1/2000 Naval - updates and ponderings

Over the preceding years I have accumulated a large 1/2000 scale scratchbuilt WW1 and interwar era naval collection. In this scale models are rather easy to produce to a reasonable standard (nothing like the 1/2400 GHQ ships, for example, but good enough).

While I occasionally dabble in scale modelling, the space even a 1/700 scale ship requires is huge compared to a 1/2000 scale fleet, so in the near future I hope I will be able to return to this project.

First I have to review the state of the existing ships and make minor updates and reparations, the occasional filling, sanding, replacing masts. I expect this task to last for a while, but I can safely bring out rather large fleets if I want to play with them.

Next up my goal is to unify each fleet's paint jobs as I just painted them in colours I liked, but perhaps they would look better with universal colours across each faction.

I also stockpiled on 2mm plasticard and aim to create 3d sea bases for each ship instead of just painting the base blue.

In the meantime I aim to expand the collection, mostly by focusing on the following vessels:

Great Britain

- Iron Duke, QE and Revenge classes (along with the respective battlecruisers)

France

- Bretagne class

- the single ship class pre-dreadnoughts

Japan

- updated Fuso and Nagato classes in their interwar outfit

I think I'll start with the British ships and see where I can get from there.

Project Napoleon and a Basing Conundrum

If there is a single period that lends itself to the 'grand manner' type of game, it is the times of Napoleon. I've had large and mostly complete armies in 1/72 for the period and enjoyed playing with them before I traded them off. I also refought some historical battles using makeshift 2mm match stick armies, and the virtual tabletop.

Now I'm at a point where I should start rebuilding my collection, this time in 6mm. Commission Figurines are the perfect choice for me as I can get loads of figures on the cheap and they are rather easy to paint.

My dilemma is that I already have about a thousand Commission Figurines troopers based for my SYW ImagiNations, on 75x25mm bases, and would like to be able to use them for Napoleonics as well. In this scale a dude in a bright uniform and a bicorne could be early Spanish, 1806 Saxon etc., similarly a dude in a bicorne and a blue uniform could be Revwar French, 1806 Prussian, the list goes on. 

While the more linear warfare of the SYW period favours narrow bases, for Napoleonics I'd like to perhaps increase the scale and pack my bases more thickly, so I was thinking about 60x30mm bases with infantry in 3x8 ranks and cavalry in 2x5 ranks. This of course would mean that the two collections cannot be mixed. I would also like to get some Ottomans, which could be used for both periods, so to have an army in both basing styles would mean doubling the figure count. And then Napoleonic Austrians could be used for the 1848-49 Hungarian war as well, meaning I only have to build the Hungarians and Russians...

So this is where I'm at now, planning to make a large-ish purchase in the near future with Walt at Commission F., but kind of at odds with the basing style. In the end I might just go with 75x25mm for the Napoleonics as well and double up the bases when needed. Blücher for example uses a 'stock' unit base size of 75x50mm. What I most certainly will not do is rebase my SYW figures.

This then raises the question whether I'll have enough table space to field units of that size as I currently only own a 110x70cm coffee table and I worry that the unit footprint would be too great.

Numbers, numbers...

Beginnings of Project Deluge

The Deluge was I think one of the most influential reads of my teenage years. Of course if I read it now the romantic ideals are more visible and the prose itself is sometimes... odd shall I say? (I'm not one of those revisionist/cancellation types by the way.)

Anyhow, I had 1/72 Polish armies for the second half of the 17th century, which I think I sold on to someone along with the GNW collection. Now that I built a sizeable traditional Western European 28mm force, it's time to turn to the East again.

I'm building forces for The Pikeman's Lament, downsizing units, so a cavalry unit is three, a forlorn four, a pike/shot unit is eight figures.

My basic Polish force would comprise of:

Six Winged Hussar figures

Six Pancerni

Six Polish dragoons

Additional Registered Cossack/Rabble cavalry (already complete)

For the Pancerni and dragoons I'll buy Warlord horses and a single sprue of their plastic cavalry, which I'll use to create a pair of masters and homecast the rest.

Additionally I'm home sculpting Cossack infantry, to eighter fight the Poles or join them as registered Cossack infantry, which would consist of 2x8 pike, 2x8 shotte, 1x rabble foot and 1x Tabor artillery on a war wagon.

The Rabble foot and artillery crew would be Frostgrave Crewmen conversions, they have the necessary baggy clothes and most likely would only need head/arm swaps and minor modifications with putty.

Half of the Cossack shot would have arms from the Warlord firelocks set (one sprue has two pairs of arms so all I need are four sprues) and I'll make weapons for the rest, 50mm paperclip pikes for the pike and probably sculpted firearms for the other group of shotte.

I have a Cossack infantryman master dolly in the making, all I have to do now is work on his overcoat, sand it smooth, add buttons etc. before I can start recasting the armless version. It's made from the body of a Perry HYW archer and a bald FG crewman head which worked with my previous experiments.

Disclaimer:

- I know that Foundry and TAG both sell Eastern European infantry but with postage and even more so with VAT I'm just not happy to commit - it's not their fault and most likely I will expand this part of the collection and purchase figures from them.

- For recasting I use air-drying putty such as Green Stuff or Magic Sculpt, and a Blue Stuff mould. It's not the most effective way and it especially limits the poses I can use to make my masters, but I live in a small apartement and the heat and fumes from metal casting are simply not viable. This means I have to think creatively!

GNW/WSS/Rákóczi Rebellion/Great Turkish War plans

So my next major project is late 17th / very early 18th century armies in 1/72.

This is a period that had my interest for a while now and I had a complete GNW Saxon-Polish and Swedish army, which I bartered away for some Perry plastics.

I actually know the person who owns the figures now so probably I could get them back, but it would mean a lot of hassle to rebase, touch up etc. the entire collection, so I just decided to start anew, especially in light of Strelets' new products for the period, which seem very promising overall and compared to their previous output. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the big GNW sets and would buy them again, for conversion work if nothing else, but the figures were a bit crude.

Anyway, just as with my 17th century collection, the goal is to start with large skirmish size forces and build from there. For starters, I'll do armies for factions which are useable for The Pikeman's Lament, and then eventually grow them to be compatible with Maurice or other larger scale games. 

I will use common bases for rank and file figures and separate smaller ones for command. I've also been thinking about semi-circular casualty markers.

This is my basing system which I will try IRL eventually:

Regular infantry:

Six troopers in two ranks on a 60x40mm base

Four command in two ranks on a 40x40mm base

Basic unit is three bases (2 rank and file + 1 command), so sixteen figures O/A

Regular cavalry:

Three riders in a single rank on a 60x40mm base

Two command on a 40x40mm base

Basic unit is three bases (2 rank and file + 1 command), so eight figures O/A

Irregulars:

Follows the same system as above, with fewer figures per base.

Artillery:

60x40mm base with one gun and four crew

All the bases are round cornered rectangles.

Thus it's easy to form six or twelve figure units for PL, and the irregular basing would not interfere much with Maurice.

The idea itself comes from the fact that Maurice uses four bases to a unit and thus I would have to split my command figures in between two bases, or have them placed not directly in the middle of a unit, which I don't like for aesthetic purposes. Three bases instead of four shouldn't matter that much. 

This also allows me to switch command bases between units when necessary, and later I can increase the number of bases in a unit to five.

I started painting the first lot I bought as GNW Russians on a whim, but we shall see what comes out of the rest.

Thinking About Galleasses

I would like to represent the traditional galeazza or galleass in my Block Galleys games. Galley warfare in the Med is a fascinating subject I think, often overshadowed by the Armada campaign and later developments. So here's a bit of a food for thought post about that.

The Glambriatic War on Fortress Diken

The Glambriatic League, consisting for the moment of Glambria and Leuwenthaal, are fed up with Pasha Aga Ali's piratical enterprises on the northern Barfrican coast. It is time for an organized effort to reduce the Barbary pirates to ruin.

Of course the Leuwenthaal admirals remember (and not so fondly) the events during the previous Fortress War between the two nations, and are not so keen on cooperating...

This is an escalation campaign that begins with a series of naval battles, and culminates in an amphibious assault and siege of the aforementioned pirate stronghold.

I started a Fortress Diken campaign in Cossacks a while back, but did not return to it in a while.

Scenarios:

1. Depredation

A galley fleet attempts to overtake a Leuwenthaal convoy. Galleys & Galleons, about five ships per side.

2. A Chance Well Met

Kumis Ali Bey's pirate galiots are bottled up in a bay along the Formaggian coastline by a storm, and a Glambrian squadron is sent to deal with them. Kumis Ali however erects fortifications and builds floating batteries. G&G with four to five ships per side.

3. The Battleline

Pasha Aga Ali converts his plundered vessels to a makeshift warfleet to prevent the League's advance. 

Fighting Sail with six to ten ships per side.

4. Just Deserts

The League army makes an opposed landing near Fortress Diken. G&G and mixed rules for land combat (Kiss Me Hardy or my own rules).

5. The Siege

Will Fortress Diken finally fall to the attackers? Maurice using my block armies, with ships present as mobile artillery units.

Block Galleys Banner and Decorative Cloth Templates

I use these templates for my 1/350 scale galley models. Here's how to use them (just as the sails):

• Save a local file of the image and paste it in Word.
• Resize the image to your desired size and colour print it.
• Cut out along the black outline (for the awning over the aft of the ship, just take some measurements, cut out a piece and fold it double).
• Fold along the center line and glue sides together.

If you look at paintings or scale models, the banners hung at the end of the lateen yards were quite large. For my standard galleys I use a 3cm long banner, so the image should be 6cm wide O/A. The awning patterns I printed at 9cm wide per piece.

Of course you can decorate the sides of your ship similarly if you lack time or don't wish to paint them.

Block Galleys Sail Templates

I use these sail templates for my 1/350 scale galley models. Here's how to use them:

• Save a local file of the image and paste it in Word.
• Resize the image to your desired size and colour print it.
• Cut out along the black outline.
• Fold along the line and glue sides together (applicable for lateen sails).

For my standard galleys I use a trinquet sail that is 3 or 4cm wide, and a mainsail that is 5,5cm wide (measured along the edge and NOT from opposite corners of the lateen sail.)

Pirates in the Yellow Isles

(Updated 03.28.)

My next plan is a series of unconnected skirmishes featuring a small Jackewlinese pirate crew and their ship in the Yellow Isles. I already ordered the next batch of Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago crewmen for just that purpose.

This is a rather unexplored part of the world of Dorfainen, full of many dangers, so it's got a lot of storytelling potential.

The crew would gather resources, avoid military vessels and try to put their hands on long lost booty, combating rival pirate gangs, tribal islanders and nature itself.

Inter Arma 2.1., my homebrew ruleset has all the necessary elements to run such a campaign, basically I draft a scenario, play it, see who survives and who gets some experience, then carry on.

Perhaps in the end the captain of the crew could become Pirate Queen/King? (or just lie dead in the sand at some forgotten place, the way pirates do.)

The thing I mostly need now is ample figures on clear acrylic bases for both naval and land-based actions - and the bases themselves, but they're not a strain on my budget. I'm not really that much into pirate swashbuckling, but I needed something to get me out of hobby fatigue, so hopefully this project will just be the right cure.

Also I'll build some pirate ships out of trash.

Rules to be used:

- an abstract scenario-based IA2.1. campaign system for the long game

- IA2.1. for medium sized skirmishes

-IA2.1. or Flashing Steel for small skirmishes

- a Block Galleys variant for naval combat, perhaps only the ship vs. ship aspect, the crews could fight it out based on IA2.1.: the turn starts with a ship movement and cannonade phase, then individual crew vs. crew combat, and then determining the ship's hull status

- larger ship vs. ship actions in Galleys &Galleons, it's fun and very random (thank you brain, now I need to get more Zvezda 1/350 scale ships)

A four-gun ship could house about ten to a dozen crew members, and could be built to be rather compact in size.

The Last Knight - A Campaign from the Times of the Martian Rebellion

Prelude

Sometimes, well before the Jazygian Empire took to space, Mankind began the colonization of the Solar System, with sub-FTL ships. They mined the inner and outer planets for resources, and terraformed a great swath of Mars and its moons.

As the richness of Earth grew, soon a unified Earth Government (EarthGov) was established. However, they excluded the Martian colonists from most of their decisions, and had the Martians pay exorbitant taxes when dealing within the inner Solar System. Then the colonists created the Martian Sphere, an exclusive trading zone, prohibiting Earth ships to mine the outer planets.

Things soon came to blows, at first with armed ore carrier and other merchant vessels, but both factions soon developed their own navies.

Italian Wars - KiK Block Army

I wrote about using cheap wooden blocks as stand-ins for my WSS/Rákóczi Rebellion armies here.

That project is currently sidelined as I've got some more figures to paint, including SYW types, which sort of fill the need.

Now I've been thinking about finding other uses to the wooden blocks, and I came to the decision that I would glue two blocks together to make them bulkier, and use them for my Italian Wars project. It was rather easy to grab some sprites off Junior General and create various troop types, all I currently need are light cavalry and artillery. The blocks this way are wide enough to show the faction and troop type on the top, so I should be able to colour print the layout of each block in a single piece, then bend it in an U-shape and glue it on.

With these I can easily run the abstract campaign system I devised here on this blog, so I can play a few battles without amassing the 900+ 28mm figures planned for my big Italian Wars project.

Once the Baccus 6mm Italian Wars range gets going, I should be able to purchase some proper figs as well. Or if I win the lottery, I can buy all the Warlord, TAG etc. renaissance figures I need.

The Siege of Floyet Manor (Mini-Campaign)

Floyet Manor is ruled by Lady Obchanna, Countess áchv Floyye taq-Moledurssan, a recently widowed Jackewlinese noblewoman. A group of Dorroseani Reavers, thinking the estate an easy prey, launch an assault on her land, which triggers a short and bloody 'small war' on the borderland.

This is an Inter Arma 2.1. mini campaign with five games, the final comprising two alternative scenarios. If the units are re-statted, it could work with other skirmish rulesets as well.

The overarching narrative of the mini-campaign is that the outcome of each encounter has a sort of cascading effect on the following ones.

After some deliberation, I chose not to include my usual schematic drawings for each scenario, leaving the terrain mostly to the players' imagination and the limits of their available pieces of scenery.

The campaign consists of the following battles and skirmishes: